What IS 'Perfect Pitch' - by the way?

[rob]

What's the best way to describe it, and what should you do to someone who has it?

[Alpina]

Rob, from my earlier posted link

A few people have what is called perfect pitch or absolute pitch. These people, when they hear music, can tell you exctly what they are hearing: the G above middle C, for example, or the first inversion of an F minor chord. A few musicians with particularly perceptive ears can even tell you that the piano they are playing on is tuned a few cents higher than the one that they play on at home. This is an unusual skill that even most trained musicians do not have, and research seems to suggest that if you don't have it at a very early age, you cannot develop it. (For more on this subject, you may want to look up Robert Jourdain's Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy: How Music Captures our Imagination.)


Andy

[Ari]

What's the best way to describe it, and what should you do to someone who has it?

"what should you do to someone who has it"??
I guess ....treat them with respect?

But seriously- yes its the ability to call any note they hear - they can tell you its frequency (its absolute note name). Most of us can do relative pitches or intervals with just a little bit of training but without a referance pitch to work with these unusuall individuals will know the exact frequency.

[BlueNote]

One of my college combos brings in a singer every rehearsal, and he just so happens to have perfect pitch. The other day we called out a note, he would hum/sing it, and the pianist would play it after, and every time he was right on.

The only downside to having perfect pitch is that when you hear something that isn't in tune, it is extremely noticable and bugs the hell out of you.

[rob]

What's the difference between using the nursery school scale and using PP??

[hgiles]

Being able to sing nursery school scale demonstrates being able to match pitch. If you can sing DO-RE-MI-FA-SOL-LA-TI-DO out of sequence, even randomly and recognize the same then you can develop relative pitch.

[1stchair]

I can do this..If someone around me is playing something I can tell them what notes they just missed or what note they should have played to make it sound right..LoL..

[fballatore]

What's the best way to describe it,?
Low and outside, at the knees, moving away from the batter.

and what should you do to someone who has it?
Sign him to a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract.

:D

(Sorry, couldn't resist. Just over 30 days to opening day!)

[rob]

I can do this..If someone around me is playing something I can tell them what notes they just missed or what note they should have played to make it sound right..LoL..

So is perfect pitch just an innate sense of interval - hard-wired.
Any PPs out there? Or don't you know it yet? Is that possible?

[WillieB]

My sister had perfect pitch, and could sing and tell you which note you hit and was always correct. She had a HUGE trumpet sound at 8 years of age, and floored those who listened to her.

I had the best technique out of our "Von Trapp" family musicians, but I would have gladly traded a bit of technique to realize that I was flat - no, wait - sharp? I knew it was off, but it certainly look longer than it should have to realize north or south, but then again, it matches my sense of direction.

[Tharruff]

My mother-in-law had 4 sisters (one is now deceased) and 4 of the five girls (my mother-in-law included) had perfect pitch even when they were first beginning music. (piano) Of course they had to learn the names of the notes and treble and bass clef, but once they had that knowledge in place, they just knew which notes were which just by the sound.

When she was in High School, the band director assigned her to play the Clarinet. She took her music home the first night and re-wrote all the parts in concert pitch. The band director couldn't figure out why she had re-written all of her parts until my mother-in-law told him that all of the parts were WRONG ! They were off by a step. The band director said, 'Uh-oh...I think you should play the flute instead !!!'

Later, she was once invited to join a 'guitar group' at a Catholic church but had to leave when the 'leader' toinked the 'E' string on her guitar and told all the other guitarists, 'Okay...everyone tune up !!!'

Her guitar was nowhere close to being at pitch and she apparently didn't understand the concept of tuning to a 'standard' pitch. As far as she was concerned, she was the leader and everyone tuned to HER guitar, at whatever pitch it happened to be at, at the time of the rehearsal.

My mother-in-law tried to explain the whole A440 thing to the guitar leader but realized that she wasn't getting anywhere so she excused herself somehow and left...never to return. She just couldn't stand to not play at pitch.

So I guess that there are a couple of probelms that can crop up from having perfect pitch...

On the other hand, she says that she can tell when the vacuum cleaner bag is full because of the change in pitch of the motor when the bag gets full !!!

[rob]

My mother-in-law had 4 sisters (one is now deceased) and 4 of the five girls (my mother-in-law included) had perfect pitch even when they were first beginning music. (piano) Of course they had to learn the names of the notes and treble and bass clef, but once they had that knowledge in place, they just knew which notes were which just by the sound.

When she was in High School, the band director assigned her to play the Clarinet. She took her music home the first night and re-wrote all the parts in concert pitch. The band director couldn't figure out why she had re-written all of her parts until my mother-in-law told him that all of the parts were WRONG ! They were off by a step. The band director said, 'Uh-oh...I think you should play the flute instead !!!'

Later, she was once invited to join a 'guitar group' at a Catholic church but had to leave when the 'leader' toinked the 'E' string on her guitar and told all the other guitarists, 'Okay...everyone tune up !!!'

Her guitar was nowhere close to being at pitch and she apparently didn't understand the concept of tuning to a 'standard' pitch. As far as she was concerned, she was the leader and everyone tuned to HER guitar, at whatever pitch it happened to be at, at the time of the rehearsal.

My mother-in-law tried to explain the whole A440 thing to the guitar leader but realized that she wasn't getting anywhere so she excused herself somehow and left...never to return. She just couldn't stand to not play at pitch.

So I guess that there are a couple of probelms that can crop up from having perfect pitch...

On the other hand, she says that she can tell when the vacuum cleaner bag is full because of the change in pitch of the motor when the bag gets full !!!

Fascinating.
It makes you wonder where musical talent ends and mild mental or neuroligical disfunction begins. Monk springs to mind for some reason. I wonder how many great musicians would have been diagnosed with some form of broad spectrum autism today.

[olpinkeyes]

The only downside to having perfect pitch is that when you hear something that isn't in tune, it is extremely noticable and bugs the hell out of you.This happens to a music teacher friend of mine. She teaches special needs and often uses keyboards with a pitch-altering control, so the kids can match their voices more easily. She has perfect pitch and says it's a nightmare trying to demo on them.

I think the best description of perfect pitch is one I read recently in a novel:

“Perfect pitch. It means, basically, that you can hit the exact note you need just by thinking about it. It can also mean, if you can read music, being able to name any note you hear and, if you have a line of music to follow, you can sing it on sight.”

Depends what your voice is like, of course, but it summed it up quite nicely for me.

[And7barton]

Later, she was once invited to join a 'guitar group' at a Catholic church but had to leave when the 'leader' toinked the 'E' string on her guitar and told all the other guitarists, 'Okay...everyone tune up !!!'

Her guitar was nowhere close to being at pitch and she apparently didn't understand the concept of tuning to a 'standard' pitch. As far as she was concerned, she was the leader and everyone tuned to HER guitar, at whatever pitch it happened to be at, at the time of the rehearsal.

My mother-in-law tried to explain the whole A440 thing to the guitar leader but realized that she wasn't getting anywhere so she excused herself somehow and left...never to return. She just couldn't stand to not play at pitch.

I think I'd have beaten up that guitarist.

[Pgraves]

I knew a 5 year old who could identify every pitch in any sort of random cluster non-chord you could play on the piano test him on. Seriously, you could jab your fingers into the keys playing a random assortment of half steps, whole steps and any other interval and he'd calmly tell you the notes. He never really got into music until late teens then he dabbled with rock guitar. PP is just one of many possible skills that go into being a "musician"

[SaxoPiper89]

I think its an interesting topic... it might be interesting to watch a normal musicians brain while listening and pp musician listening to music.. you know like you see on discovery.. the different colors popping up and what not so you can tell which areas of the brain are functioning more than others..
It could be a very cool thing to study. or maybe just watch. : )

[And7barton]

I think its an interesting topic... it might be interesting to watch a normal musicians brain while listening and pp musician listening to music.. you know like you see on discovery.. the different colors popping up and what not so you can tell which areas of the brain are functioning more than others..
It could be a very cool thing to study. or maybe just watch. : )

I think, with veteran head-bangers, you'd have trouble finding any functioning areas at all.

[rogerb40uk]

My school head-master was a music fanatic and used to teach us 'A'Level Physics.
One day, doing Sonics, he tuned two strings and said "Now these 2 strings are in tune"
I, with zero musical experience, said "No they aren't..that one is flatter!"
An argument ensued, until the Head Boy, a violinist in the school orchestra, supported me.......afterwards the Head always checked with me!

I couldn't, and still can't, *name* the notes(I think that has to be taught early), but seem to have a good ear for pitch being 'out'.

But any such innate ability is not, IMO, a reason to feel 'proud' (any more than being tall, or having a high IQ, or even having the good fortune to be born with a particular nationality ;) )
It's what you *do* with 'your gifts' that counts.

[And7barton]

This might be interesting too - I suffer from tinnitus (Yes, a sax player with tinnitus) and have done for around 20 years. It stemmed originally from a couple of accidental exposures to loud noise on a shooting range. Now, we have an artillery and tank live firing range about eight miles from here. When they are firing I can hear it going on....... When I've commented to others about it, they don't know what I'm talking about and can't hear anything whatsoever ! - Unfortunately, although I can hear these almost sub-sonic sounds, I have bad high frequency hearing response, due to the damage.
But I always find it strange that most other people (but not all), can't hear those ultra-low sounds. Of course, I don't know if the hearing damage I suffered is actually enabling me to hear those LF sounds, or if it's just co-incidence.